Week 3 (Jan. 22-25) M MLK Jr. Holiday
T (E) Student Learning Teams/Vocabulary Work (Connotation in Alice)
HW: Read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter X: "The Lobster-Quadrille"
W (F) Learning Teams/Work on Student Learning Teams Reports in Collaborize
HW: Independent Reading
Th (A) Introduce Digital Story-telling project Appeteaser: Write in your composition notebook: What is your story? In other words, what is the story you need to tell that needs to be told? What is your story about being in the fifth grade?
1. Why do we tell stories?
2. What purposes do stories serve?
3. What are the stories that define you?
4. If you were to tell a story about being in the fifth grade, what would it include?
What tools do you need to tell your story?
What digital format could your story take?
What skills do you need to learn to make your story have the impact you want to have?
HW: Read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter XI: Who Stole the Tarts?
F (B) Discuss "The Lobster-Quadrille" and "Who Stole the Tarts?"
What's different about the Mock Turtle? Consider his name? What does this have to do with his stories and songs? What do you notice about the way he talks? (See especially pp. 63-65 and p. 69)
What is Alice learning about being in Wonderland? What does she mean when she says, "it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then?" (p.69).
What does Carroll mean when he writes, "she sat down with her face in her hands, and wondering if anything would ever happen in a natural way again" (p. 71).
What do you think Carroll is mocking in "Who Stole the Tarts"? What makes you think this?
A lot is said about Alice growing in Chapter XI. Others are made uncomfortable by this, and they object. Why? How does growing change things for you?
HW: Independent Reading
Week 4 (Jan. 28-Feb. 1)
M (C) In-class writing: Bringing your story to life (collecting details, setting a scene, framing the picture) Story Options: Life Lessons... and Other Stories from 5th Grade Down the Rabbit Hole: The Day Everything Changed
1. Appeteaser: Write a response to one of the story options above.
2. Brainstorming Exercise: Close your eyes and put yourself in the time and place of your story. Take a moment to recall all the sites and smells and sounds and tastes and textures. How did things feel inside and outside of you? What did people say? What were you thinking? What happened?
Make a list of as many details as possible. Try to include each of the senses. Be specific.
3. Go back to your story and try again. Put your reader in the scene and let it roll.
4. Share.
HW: Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland, Chapter XII: "Alice's Evidence"
T (D) Read and Discuss: Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland, Chapter XII: "Alice's Evidence"
Appeteaser: Describe Wonderland to someone who has not read the book or heard of the story. What is it? What do you think Lewis Carroll is trying to tell us by creating this wonder-ous, wonder-ing, wonder-ful place?
1. Share and discuss appeteasers.
2. What do you think Carroll is saying about the justice system in the last chapter? How might he be commenting on the British system of justice in the real world?
3. How has Alice been changed by her visit to Wonderland?
HW: Independent Reading
W (E) 5A: Student Learning Teams; 5B: English Workshop, Chapter 9: The Sentence: "Sentence or Sentence Fragment?"; "The Complete Subject" (81-84)
HW: 5A: English Workshop, Chapter 9: The Sentence: "Sentence or Sentence Fragment?"; "The Complete Subject" (pp. 81-84); 5B: English Workshop: The Sentence: "Complete Subjects and Simple Subjects" (pp. 85-86)
Th (F) 5A: English Workshop, Chapter 9: The Sentence: "Complete Subjects and Simple Subjects" (pp. 85-86)
HW: Independent Reading
F (A) Reviewing complete and simple subjects; in-class writing -- clarifying the subject of your story; adding imagery and concrete detail
Appeteaser: Continue your story by answering this question:
What if... it had never happened? But it did.
(How does this nail down the subject -- or center -- of your story?) 1. Close your eyes. Bring your story into focus. What do you see? (Draw a square as if it were a picture. Who and what fill that picture? (How does this bring your story's subject into sharper focus? What's on the edges of your picture? What's outside it? How are these things that make your story interesting?) 2. Look over what you have written so far. How can you add imagery and detail to bring the scene alive? How can you make your nouns and verbs more concrete and precise? 3. What is a draft?
HW:Finish a draft of your story for sharing on Monday. Type it up and bring 4 copies to class. Come to see me before school if you need me to copy it for you.
M MLK Jr. Holiday
T (E) Student Learning Teams/Vocabulary Work (Connotation in Alice)
HW: Read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter X: "The Lobster-Quadrille"
W (F) Learning Teams/Work on Student Learning Teams Reports in Collaborize
HW: Independent Reading
Th (A) Introduce Digital Story-telling project
Appeteaser: Write in your composition notebook: What is your story? In other words, what is the story you need to tell that needs to be told? What is your story about being in the fifth grade?
1. Why do we tell stories?
2. What purposes do stories serve?
3. What are the stories that define you?
4. If you were to tell a story about being in the fifth grade, what would it include?
What tools do you need to tell your story?
What digital format could your story take?
What skills do you need to learn to make your story have the impact you want to have?
HW: Read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter XI: Who Stole the Tarts?
F (B) Discuss "The Lobster-Quadrille" and "Who Stole the Tarts?"
What's different about the Mock Turtle? Consider his name? What does this have to do with his stories and songs? What do you notice about the way he talks? (See especially pp. 63-65 and p. 69)
What is Alice learning about being in Wonderland? What does she mean when she says, "it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then?" (p.69).
What does Carroll mean when he writes, "she sat down with her face in her hands, and wondering if anything would ever happen in a natural way again" (p. 71).
What do you think Carroll is mocking in "Who Stole the Tarts"? What makes you think this?
A lot is said about Alice growing in Chapter XI. Others are made uncomfortable by this, and they object. Why? How does growing change things for you?
HW: Independent Reading
Week 4 (Jan. 28-Feb. 1)
M (C) In-class writing: Bringing your story to life (collecting details, setting a scene, framing the picture)
Story Options:
Life Lessons... and Other Stories from 5th Grade
Down the Rabbit Hole: The Day Everything Changed
1. Appeteaser: Write a response to one of the story options above.
2. Brainstorming Exercise: Close your eyes and put yourself in the time and place of your story. Take a moment to recall all the sites and smells and sounds and tastes and textures. How did things feel inside and outside of you? What did people say? What were you thinking? What happened?
Make a list of as many details as possible. Try to include each of the senses. Be specific.
3. Go back to your story and try again. Put your reader in the scene and let it roll.
4. Share.
HW: Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland, Chapter XII: "Alice's Evidence"
T (D) Read and Discuss: Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland, Chapter XII: "Alice's Evidence"
Appeteaser: Describe Wonderland to someone who has not read the book or heard of the story. What is it? What do you think Lewis Carroll is trying to tell us by creating this wonder-ous, wonder-ing, wonder-ful place?
1. Share and discuss appeteasers.
2. What do you think Carroll is saying about the justice system in the last chapter? How might he be commenting on the British system of justice in the real world?
3. How has Alice been changed by her visit to Wonderland?
HW: Independent Reading
W (E) 5A: Student Learning Teams; 5B: English Workshop, Chapter 9: The Sentence: "Sentence or Sentence Fragment?"; "The Complete Subject" (81-84)
HW: 5A: English Workshop, Chapter 9: The Sentence: "Sentence or Sentence Fragment?"; "The Complete Subject" (pp. 81-84); 5B: English Workshop: The Sentence: "Complete Subjects and Simple Subjects" (pp. 85-86)
Th (F) 5A: English Workshop, Chapter 9: The Sentence: "Complete Subjects and Simple Subjects" (pp. 85-86)
HW: Independent Reading
F (A) Reviewing complete and simple subjects; in-class writing -- clarifying the subject of your story; adding imagery and concrete detail
Appeteaser: Continue your story by answering this question:
What if... it had never happened? But it did.
(How does this nail down the subject -- or center -- of your story?)1. Close your eyes. Bring your story into focus. What do you see? (Draw a square as if it were a picture. Who and what fill that picture? (How does this bring your story's subject into sharper focus? What's on the edges of your picture? What's outside it? How are these things that make your story interesting?)
2. Look over what you have written so far. How can you add imagery and detail to bring the scene alive? How can you make your nouns and verbs more concrete and precise?
3. What is a draft?
HW:Finish a draft of your story for sharing on Monday. Type it up and bring 4 copies to class. Come to see me before school if you need me to copy it for you.